Back to school!

 Well, today was my first day of school!  It has been very different, the last couple weeks, getting ready not only to work part time, but also to be working in a position where I don't have a class of my own.  I'm working mornings this year, and Miriam will be going to preschool in the afternoons.  (She starts school next week.)  It has been fun though, getting adjusted to this new job.  I'm a reading interventionist, so I'll be helping in reading groups and pulling students for reading interventions.  In addition, we gather, collect and analyze the school's reading data and then adjust instruction based on the results.  It is a busy job, but I'm excited about the change and the challenge!

Quick updates about the kids -

Miri is almost 3.5 and never stops moving or talking.  She's bright and has a great memory, and is always surprising me with things she says.  (Tonight, she was getting ready for bed, and she said to me, "I think I see an arachnid on the wall." HA!)  We've been reading books about animals (most lately frogs) and she shares "bonus facts" (things she learns) with people, mostly Mario when he gets home from work.  She loves to play hide and seek (although if you try to find her and say "ready or not, here I come!", she yells out "I'm in ______!!", telling us exactly where she is.  It's cute!)  She still loves playing outside, digging in the dirt, running/jumping/skipping/hopping around, reading books, and lately she's starting showing an interest in playing catch and baseball/tennis.

Mathias is almost 10 months and is also always moving.  He's crawling all over the place, but even more than that, he's pulling up on everything and starting to cruise around on furniture!  He always wants to be involved in what's going on, including dinnertime (he LOVES food!), and will even try to follow us from room to room, even if I'm just going to throw something away.  He's a happy guy, laughing and smiling most of the time...and Miriam can make him laugh the hardest.  He's in love with any food that we give him, but especially loves finger foods that he can pick up and eat himself.  His absolute favorite food is blueberries, but he also loves avocado, raspberries, pears, peaches and cheese.  The biggest news with Mathias (besides the pulling up and cruising, I suppose) is that he is sleeping very well in his crib!  He loves to move around a lot when he sleeps and we started putting him in his crib (both for naps and at night) when we got back from Minnesota, and he's been doing pretty well.

Here are some recent pictures of the kids:

Baby yoga pose!

Big boy, sleeping in his crib. 

That's the smile that tells us he knows he shouldn't be playing in the closet....:) 

He crawled out of his pants!